I first stumbled across cryptofiction in my desperate attempts to figure out what on earth I was going to write my dissertation on. Although I find myself inspired by a lot of things (I was originally planning on writing about the tensions of blood and biology in mixed-race literature) finding something that can sustain a project of this size is damn well difficult. 917 more words

“Civilization is like a thin layer of ice upon a deep ocean of chaos and darkness” – Werner Herzog

A modern ocean liner can cross the Atlantic Ocean from a Western European port to New York in a week, and while maximum speed of current naval warships is classified for obvious reasons, travel in excess of forty knots seems fairly common (which cuts the time for transatlantic travel down to 3.8 days). 1,451 more words